As promised, here is the second installment in the Star Wars Rey Costume series. As mentioned in Part 1 of the series, I originally intended to have the costume completed in time for Halloween but again, due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to create the proper shirt. Instead I used a shirt purchased locally and weathered it with a mixture of dirt and paint. While it was an inexpensive option that required very little work, several details were missing. This became even more obvious after Star Wars The Force Awakens was released so I decided to start from scratch with a new shirt.

Today most mainstream nail polish brands are 3 free – free of formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and toluene. And for green beauties, 5 free nail polish, which is also free of formaldehyde resin and camphor, has become the new standard for greener, cleaner nail polish. Now, a few brands have raised the bar even higher to eliminate additional toxins. Alia polish is 8 free – free of the of all of the chemicals excluded in 5 free polish and also free of parabens, TPHP, and sulfates. It is also vegan and gluten-free, but is the Aila Top Coat really better than gel?

With all the recent popularity of StarWarsTheForceAwakens, it’s a safe bet that Rey’s costume from the movie will be a favorite among all ages. Even before the movie was released, people were frantically researching the costume and props used on this leading heroine. And I was one of them! Having not worn a costume in over a decade I looked to online resources for all the information I could find. This is a compilation of what I found and how I created my own Star Wars Rey costume.

My first undertaking with respect to natural beauty was to revamp my hair products. This was primarily because I was unhappy with the current state of my hair. Although I’ve always had a head full of wavy, textured hair, I had noticed that I was losing quite a bit in the shower and it no longer had the shine that it used. Initially I thought this was due to age, but I now believe that it had more to do with the abuse it suffered through hot irons, blow dryers and the massive amount of chemicals that I was applying to it on a daily basis. I used a lot of hair products – styling cream to straighten, spray for volume, serum for shine, balm for more shine, spray for hold. Having a lot of textured hair meant I needed a lot of help (tools, products) to control it. Or so I thought.